A ceremony was held in Southgate High Street at the weekend to mark the opening of a new library - a miniature replacement for the now closed full size library, with ribbon cutting performed by a local poet and writer whose historical novels have been enjoying international success.
Ready for the opening ceremony: Southgate's new "library"
Maggie Brookes-Butt with the newly opened "Southgate Library"
The wooden book exchange, bearing the proud inscription "Southgate Library", was a Christmas present for poet and novelist Maggie Brookes-Butt.
Maggie says, "I was so upset at Enfield Council closing Southgate Library that my husband Tim built me a book exchange for Christmas. It went up today on our wall in the High Street, near Southgate College.
"When he was fixing it, people kept stopping to say how angry they are about the library, and the book exchange has already been half emptied and refilled."
Southgate Library is now closed and looking very neglected, but still has the window transfers created by Dan Maier to celebrate local seed merchants Cuthberts (Photo: Dan Maier)
The original Southgate Library, which was also adjacent fo Southgate College, was one of seven closed by Enfield Council last year as a cost-cutting measure. Despite a campaign to stop the closures, only one of the eight on the original list - Oakwood - was reprieved. The council argued that Southgate Library and Winchmore Hill Library (adjacent to Sainsbury's in Green Lanes) were located in areas of "relatively low need" and "low need" respectively and that it would be "reasonable" for users to travel to other libraries that were remaining open.
Maggie publishes her poetry under the name Maggie Butt, while as a novelist she is known as Maggie Brookes. Her two novels published to date combine her love of writing with her expertise as a former BBC historical documentary researcher. She "relishes uncovering stories about the strength of women and the power of friendship and love in the most terrible of circumstances". Acts of Love and War, published in 2022, is a "heartrending tale of love, courage and sacrifice", following three young British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. The Prisoner's Wife is based on an "extraordinary" true story about a woman in a male prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi-occupied Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) and has been translated into several languages, including Czech.
